[cardfan1996]

You need a reliable “perimeter” scorer and Hannah has been thus far unable to convert herself into one. But you have to have her on the floor because of spacing so at least her defender stays attached to allow the Bigs to go 1 on 1. Hannah was protected and was seemingly on Beal a lot which is more of a roamer defender role where you don’t expend a lot of energy chasing (normally this was Haley’s defensive assignment). But I need to watch again. And since Haley is not a “perimeter” scorer, and Hannah will be face guarded, who can be that Lexie Hull person in the current starting lineup?And this is ultimately my issue with Lepolo’s skillset. She was surprisingly better on defense than I’d previously seen (not a mark at all for the first time) but with help to contain Cooke then the wheels fell off for everyone in 4th on offense and defense. And 6pts, 3 turnovers, 5 assist(?) is probably the best she can play against the elite athleticism of S. Carolina and maybe if Haley and Cam are both going bonkers, that stat line is good enough. But it’s hard to win the big one without your point guard being a significant scoring threat that other teams must gameplan against. Has only happened once in the last decade on championship teams.

[cardfan1996]

You need a reliable “perimeter” scorer and Hannah has been thus far unable to convert herself into one. But you have to have her on the floor because of spacing so at least her defender stays attached to allow the Bigs to go 1 on 1. Hannah was protected and was seemingly on Beal a lot which is more of a roamer defender role where you don’t expend a lot of energy chasing (normally this was Haley’s defensive assignment). But I need to watch again. And since Haley is not a “perimeter” scorer, and Hannah will be face guarded, who can be that Lexie Hull person in the current starting lineup?And this is ultimately my issue with Lepolo’s skillset. She was surprisingly better on defense than I’d previously seen (not a mark at all for the first time) but with help to contain Cooke then the wheels fell off for everyone in 4th on offense and defense. And 6pts, 3 turnovers, 5 assist(?) is probably the best she can play against the elite athleticism of S. Carolina and maybe if Haley and Cam are both going bonkers, that stat line is good enough. But it’s hard to win the big one without your point guard being a significant scoring threat that other teams must gameplan against. Has only happened once in the last decade on championship teams.